Description:

Once signed languages are recognized as natural human languages, a world of exploration opens up. Signed languages provide a powerful tool for investigating the nature of human language and language processing, the relation between cognition and language, and the neural organization of language. The value of sign languages lies in their modality. Specifically, for perception, signed languages depend upon high-level vision and motion processing systems, and for production, they require the integration of motor systems involving the hands and face. These facts raise many questions: What impact does this different biological base have for grammatical systems? For online language processing? For the acquisition of language? How does it affect nonlinguistic cognitive structures and processing? Are the same neural systems involved? These are some of the questions that this book aims at addressing. The answers provide insight into what constrains grammatical form, language processing, linguistic working memory, and hemispheric specialization for language. The study of signed languages allows researchers to address questions about the nature of linguistic and cognitive systems that otherwise could not be easily addressed.

Documenting the Birth of a Language: The Nicaraguan Sign Language Project

The American Deaf Community and Sociolinguistic Context

Suggestions for Further Reading

The Structure of American Sign Language: Linguistic Universals and Modality Effects

The Structure of Signs: Morphology and the Lexicon

The Phonology of a Soundless Language

Syntax: The Structure of Sentences

Discourse and Language Use

Conclusions and Implications

Suggestions for Further Reading

The Confluence of Language and Space

Classifier Constructions

Talking About Space With Space

Nonlocative Functions of Signing Space

Conclusion

Suggestions for Further Reading

Psycholinguistic Studies of Sign Perception, Online Processing, and Production

Sign Perception and Visual Processing

Lexical Access and Sign Recognition

Lexical Representations and Organization

Online Comprehension of Signed Utterances: Psycholinguistic Studies of Coreference

Some Issues in Sign Language Production

Suggestions for Further Reading

Sign Language Acquisition

Early Development

What Does That "Mistake" Mean? Acquisition of Syntax and Morphology

Later Development

Conclusions and Implications

Suggestions for Further Reading

The Critical Period Hypothesis and the Effects of Late Language Acquisition

When Language Input Is Absent or Inconsistent: The Contribution of the Child

The Effects of Age of Acquisition on Grammatical Knowledge and Language Processing

Delayed First Language Acquisition Differs From Second Language Acquisition

The Cognitive Effects of Delayed First Language Acquisition

The Effects of Late Acquisition on the Neural Organization of Language

Suggestions for Further Reading

Memory for Sign Language: Implications for the Structure of Working Memory

Early Evidence for Sign-Based Working Memory

Evidence for a Visuospatial Phonological Loop

Working Memory Capacity: Effects on Memory Span for Sign and Speech

Effects of the Visuospatial Modality on Sign-Based Working Memory

A Modality Effect for Sign Language? Implications for Models of Working Memory

The Architecture of Working Memory for Sign Language: Summary and Conclusions

Suggestions for Further Reading

The Impact of Sign Language Use on Visuospatial Cognition

Motion Processing

Face Processing

Mental Imagery

Domains Unaffected by Sign Language Use

Implications: Does Language Affect Cognition?

Suggestions for Further Reading

Sign Language and the Brain

What Determines the Left-Hemispheric Specialization for Language?

Within Hemisphere Organization of Sign Language

The Role of the Right Hemisphere in Language Processes

The Role of Subcortical Structures in Sign Language

Conclusions and Implications

Suggestions for Further Reading

Epilogue

Handshapes in American Sign Language

Linguistic Distinctions Among Communication Forms in Nicaragua

References

Author Index

Subject Index

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